By Innovation-sa on February 6, 2020 in News
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia rose by 10 percent from $3.18 billion in 2018 to $3.50 billion during the first nine months of 2019, said Invest Saudi, the state body promoting foreign investments, based on reports published by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA).
In line with the objectives of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is undergoing massive economic and social changes and is looking forward to improve it’s business climate and attract FDI to the country with the idea of diversifying its oil-dependent economy to other sectors. With 1,130 foreign companies established in Saudi Arabia during the last year, the Kingdom has marked a 54 percent increase in FDI, the biggest over the past 10 years.
The final quarter of 2019 marked the busiest period of the year and witnessed the increase in number of new international companies from only 238 during the same quarter in 2018 to 305 this year. Investments spanned across different sectors including tourism to value-added manufacturing, with some 150 investor deals falling across high-priority Vision 2030 sectors.
The Saudi government has been constantly working to attract foreign investors to the Kingdom and to help them develop a competitive investment environment. As a result, last year Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) announced seven investment principles to ensure equality between Saudi and foreign investors, protection of investment within the Kingdom’s laws, to enable sustainability and transparency when addressing investor complaints, to provide equal investment incentives and non-discriminative criteria for eligibility, to implement appropriate social and environmental regulations, to facilitate access procedures for foreign workers and their families, and to ensure the transfer of knowledge.